Multi Function Toy with Embedded Wireless Hardware

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to a toy or plush stuffed animal or a doll with built in Hardware device connected with a speaker(s) and a microphone(s). The main usage of this toy is to be used as a Bluetooth headset, Baby Activity Monitor in conjunction with an Mobile Application, as a Music Player with unlimited playback of Audio Story Books or Lullaby Music, any kind of music when Paired with smart phones and any blue tooth enabled devices or as a Interactive talk back toy when used with a Mobile Application.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED INVENTION

This application claims the partial benefit of the filing date of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61624124, Dated 13 Apr. 2012 Filed byRaja Ramamoorthy, Confirmation Number 6008 and the contents of which isincorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates the field of wireless technology and consumerdevice such as toy or doll.

BACKGROUND

The background description provided herein is for the purpose ofgenerally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwiseindicated herein, the materials described in this section are not priorart to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be priorart by inclusion in this section.

There is a ubiquity of smart devices in the market place and the needfor the ability to have such devices interact with consumer toys has abig value in the market place. This invention utilizes varioustechnologies to make toys enable a better experience for the consumer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example view of a Multifunction toy built withBluetooth device connected with amplifier, speakers, microphones, volumecontrol switches and a Power Switch.

FIG. 2 illustrates a representation of the toy as a Baby MonitoringDevice.

FIG. 3 illustrates a representation of the use of the toy as a MusicPlayer.

FIG. 4 illustrates a representation of the use of the toy as a BluetoothHeadset.

FIG. 5 illustrates a representation of the use of the toy as a TalkbackToy.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 2 represents a embodiment of the multi function toy which consistsof a plush toy 100 built with a Bluetooth device 105 that is connectedwith amplifier 105, speakers 106, microphones 104 and 103, volumecontrol 101, volume control switches 102 and power switch 102. This toyconnects/pairs 108 with a Bluetooth enabled device 107 such as a laptop,tablet or a smart phone.

This invention relates to a toy or plush stuffed animal or a doll withbuilt in Bluetooth Hardware device connected with a speaker(s) and amicrophone(s). More particularly the main usage of this toy is (a)Bluetooth headset, (b) Baby activity monitor in conjunction with anMobile Application, (c) As a Music player with unlimited playback ofAudio story books or Lullaby music or any kind of music when paired withsmart phones and any blue tooth enabled devices (d) As a Interactivetalk back toy when used with a Mobile Application.

When the toy is paired with a Bluetooth enabled Smart phone or any otherBluetooth enabled device this toy can be used as a Bluetooth headset.Plush toy acting like a phone establishes a two-way communication withfamily members and friends. It would make it easy for any children touse these toys for communication with the family members and friends.Generally children are not excited and do not like to converse usingregular phones but having them talk from a Plush toy would make themexcited. A family member living away from home can call a Bluetoothenabled phone and if this toy is paired with that phone the incomingcall can be answered using the toy and a two-way communication isestablished between the toy and the caller. Children at home can hearand talk back to the caller using the toy and caller can sing a song ormake sounds or read a storybook to the kid.

This toy can be used as a baby activity monitor with a companion mobilephone application. Majority of the baby activity monitoring devices useRF or Wifi wireless network to communicate between the transmitter andthe receiver. The transmitting device, which would transmit audiosignal, is either powered by a battery or plugged directly to a powersource and such devices are usually kept near the child to monitor babyactivity. Baby Monitoring devices are considered as active electronicdevices and there is an always a concern that parents do not want tokeep the devices very close to the baby. Most of the devices producestatic noises and they need a power outlet close to the crib. Having ababy activity-monitoring transmitter built into a plush toy would makethe monitoring very effective. Parents can use Bluetooth protocol toconnect their smartphone or a tablet to the toy. The smartphone or tablewill become a receiver device and they can run an app on that devicewhich can be used for baby monitoring. Parents can monitor the activityof the baby when the baby is on the move with the toy, which is notpossible with the current baby monitoring devices.

When the plush toy is paired with a Bluetooth enabled device like smartphone, tablets, laptops, desktop, and audio receivers the toy can beused to play lullaby music from any music application. It can also playaudio storybook content from a supporting application. Parents love toplay music or sing lullaby or tell stories to their children duringtheir bedtime but imagine the possibility of children hearing all thatfrom a plush toy. Parents can play their children's favorite music oraudio storybooks. Hearing it on the plush toy would make it moreinteresting and exciting for the child.

The plush toy can be used as a talk back toy when paired with aBluetooth capable device. On the Bluetooth capable device, one can run amobile application that will be used to create the talk back effect. Thetoy will repeat anything you talk in front of the toy. In current toys,the talk back option on a plush toy is limited to few words or limitedfor a certain period of time, but using a Bluetooth protocol with amobile application, there is no limit to the words or time for the talkback.

The toy built in with a Bluetooth receiver with AD2P protocol acts likea Bluetooth headset when it is paired with a Bluetooth enabledsmartphone or a regular phone. The toy is also built with a speaker(s)and high sensitive Microphone with volume up and down buttons. When itis paired, the toy can pick up incoming phone calls and establish atwo-way communication. There is an inbuilt battery, which would providethe power required for the Bluetooth receiver.

This toy can be used as a monitoring device using a mobile applicationthat runs on an iOS or Android based smart phone or tablet. Duringmonitoring, the toy acts like an audio signal transmitter and the smartphone or a tablet device is like a receiver of the Audio signal with themobile application controlling both the toy and the smartphone. Themobile application has a user interface with an option to start themonitoring or end the monitoring. The mobile application also runs as abackground application. When user presses the start-monitoring buttonthe smart device would listen to the audio signal from the microphonebuilt in with the toy. There are a couple of ways the audio signal/soundis picked up from the toy microphone and directed to the device speaker.In one option, the audio signal is picked up from the Toy Microphone andstored inside in the memory of the smart phone or a tablet device. Thecontent is read from the memory, amplified and directed to the speaker.In the second option, there is a direct connection established betweenthe Device speaker and the Toy microphone using the device operatingsystem Application Programming Interfaces. Both the options use themobile application as a connection point to establish connection betweenthe microphone and the device speaker.

When paired with a Bluetooth enabled device like smart phone, laptops,desktops, audio receivers and tablet devices this toy plays lullabymusic from any applications or mobile applications. The toy has a builtin amplifier with speaker along with the Bluetooth receiver supportingA2DP protocol. Once the toy is paired with a smart phone or tablet orany Bluetooth enabled device (called master device) the toy speakerbecome one of the audio output source to the master device. Any audio ormusic we play in the master device is outputted to the toy speaker. Themusic or audio can be played, paused, fast-forward and rewind from thetoy with an option of controlling the volume.

Using Bluetooth technology in conjunction with an Application (iOS,Android, Windows based applications run on Mobile devices and Tablets),this toy invention can be used as a talk back toy when it's paired witha Bluetooth capable device. The mobile application pick ups sound/audiosignal from the toy microphone and repeats it back at toy speaker. Theaudio signal is stored in a temporary memory of the mobile device andthe mobile application will read the audio content from the memory andplay in back in the toy speaker. There is a time lag between the audioinput to the toy microphone and the output to the toy speaker tosimulate the talk back or repeat function. The lag value is in secondsand it is configurable. When a child says ‘Hello’ and toy repeats‘Hello’ and the delay in the response is based on the configurationvalue set in the mobile application.

FIG. 2 represents the toy as a baby monitoring device. The toy or dollwith Bluetooth receiver 201 with an embedded microphone 202 is pairedwith a Bluetooth Enabled Smartphone or Tablet Device 204. When the BabyMonitor Application 203 is launched the microphone 202 from the Toy orDoll 201 is connected to the Speaker of iOS/Android/Windows BasedSmartphone or Tablet Devices 204. Any Sound or Noise heard near the Toyor Doll 201 is reproduced at the Tablet Device 204.

FIG. 3 represents the use of the toy as a Music Player. The Toy or Dollwith a Bluetooth receiver 301 is paired with a Bluetooth EnabledSmartphone or Tablet Device 304. Any Music played on the Smartphone orTablet device 304 is reproduced at the Toy 301.

FIG. 4 represents the use of the toy as a Bluetooth headset. The Toy orDoll with a Bluetooth receiver 401 is paired with a Bluetooth EnabledSmartphone or Tablet Device 403. A two way communication 402 is nowestablished between the Toy 401 and Device 403 and one can use thischannel to communicate.

FIG. 5 represents the use of the toy as a Talkback Toy. The Toy or Dollwith a Bluetooth receiver 502 with embedded speaker 503 and microphone501 is paired with a Bluetooth Enabled Smartphone or Tablet Device 505.A talkback mobile application 504 is launched on the device 505. In thismode, anything a user says near the toy microphone is repeated back inthe toy microphone.

What is claimed is:
 1. At least one toy or doll built with fourdifferent functions namely Telephone headset, Music player, Baby monitorand Talk back functionality.
 2. At least one toy or doll of claim 1 withbuilt in wireless hardware which can receive and send audio data to andfrom smart phones and tablet devices.
 3. At least one toy or doll ofclaim 1 communicates with the mobile application installed on the smartphone or tablet devices using wireless protocol to send and receiveaudio data.
 4. At least one toy or doll of claim 1 with built inspeakers, microphones and audio amplifiers.
 5. At least one toy or dollof claim 1 which can be paired with smartphone or tablet using wirelessprotocol.
 6. At least one toy or doll of claim 1 with the mobileapplication installed on the smart phone or tablet devices that actslike a baby activity monitor when paired with any smartphone or tabletusing wireless protocol.
 7. At least one toy or doll of claim 1 with themobile application installed on the smart phone or tablet devices thatacts like a talk back toy when paired with any smartphone or tabletusing wireless protocol.
 8. At least one toy or doll of claim 1 whichcan be paired with any smartphone or tablet and acts like a telephoneheadset to send and receive audio data back and forth from a smart phoneusing wireless protocol.
 9. At least one toy or doll of claim 1 whichcan stream audio data from the smartphone or tablet and play it on thespeaker of the doll.